Interview Subject Bios and Questions

Marion Blackburn
Bio:

Marion Blackburn is a policy developer and data analyst who primarly works in animal welfare. For many years she was a freelance and creative writer, and this site represents that work. She holds the Master of Public Administration degree. At present she lobbies for animal welfare at the local, state, and national levels. She served as the District 3 representative for the Greenville, N.C. City Council 2009-2015.

Interview Questions:
1. What is the current policy on regulation for CAFOs in North Carolina?
2. What does this policy allow farmers to get away with on an environmental scope?
3. Who is making these policies?
4. At what level are these policies being made? Federal, state, local?
5. How much revenue is brought into the North Carolina annually by pork production?
6. And how much revenue for poultry production?
7. Why aren't these policies being successfully reformed when there is so much harm being caused?
8. Who is most affected by these policies?
9. What is your message to policy makers and corporations in favor of the farms?
10. What is your proposed solution to the farming problem in NC?

Elsie Herring
Bio:

In 1891 Elsie Herring’s grandfather, a freed slave, bought a tract of land from his former slave owner and aunt, a white woman he called Miss Emily. By 1897 he had bought about 70 acres in Duplin County—the same land that Herring’s mother would live on all 99 years of her life—the same land that Herring and her siblings would grow up on and that Herring would return to in 1993.

Now that land is the collateral damage of one of the most prosperous industries in Duplin County and southeastern North Carolina. While some see hog farming as the savior of the region’s economy after the collapse of the tobacco market, those facing the brunt of its health and environmental effects, Elsie being one of them, have a different take on the industry.

Interview Questions:

1. How long have you lived on this land?

2. What kind of farm is across the street?

3. What do you see on a daily basis from your front porch?

4. In what ways do you deal with the waste from the farm?

5. What effect does this have on you and your family and neighbors?

6. What have you done to try to remedy the situation?

7. What have you had to sacrifice in order to stay on your own land?

8. Why do you feel you haven't been heard when trying to fix this?

9. What would you like to see people do to help?

10. What would be your proposed solution to the farming problem in NC?